SASKATOON -- The Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO) at the University of Saskatchewan has received approval from Health Canada for its COVID-19 vaccine to move to Phase 1 clinical trials.
“The approval to initiate a human clinical trial is a milestone for VIDO,” said VIDO Director and CEO Dr. Volker Gerdts. “This is the first of our two COVID-19 subunit vaccines in development and demonstrates the quality of our research, development and partnerships.
Health Canada's authorization allows the Canadian Center for Vaccinology (CCV) in Halifax to begin recruiting volunteers for the first Phase 1 clinical trial. The first batch of volunteers is anticipated to be vaccinated in January.
“This is the first university-based COVID-19 vaccine to begin Phase 1 testing at CCV. The purpose of this trial is to demonstrate the safety of the vaccine in humans,” said CCV director Dr. Scott Halperin.
Depending on how trials go, VIDO is optimistic it will have one of its vaccines ready for use by late 2021.
